Liam Hayes

Best known as the man behind Chicago's retro-pop project Plush, Liam Hayes also worked with Will Oldham's Palace and ventured into a scoring career in the 2010s.

Though Hayes began making music as Plush in the early '90s, it wasn't until 1998 that he released the debut album More You Becomes You, which focused on spare piano balladry that called to mind Burt Bacharach and Carole King. Four years later, he returned with the ambitious orchestral pop of Fed. For 2009's Bright Penny, which was credited to Liam Hayes and Plush, he concocted an "ode to pop music" that struck a balance between the extremes of his earlier albums. Hayes wrote new music and also culled tracks from Plush's discography for the soundtrack to Roman Coppola's 2012 film A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, which explored the vivid imagination and romantic entanglements of a graphic designer in the '70s. Hayes also appeared in the film, echoing a cameo he had in 2000's High Fidelity. Another Liam Hayes and Plush album, Korp Sole Roller, flirted with '70s glam rock and arrived in 2014. Following a tour with former Girls frontman Christopher Owens, Hayes delivered the more stripped-down Slurrup in January 2015. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi